An Exploratory Study on Antecedents of Inter-firm Networking among Small Venture Businesses

Abstract

This paper investigated the antecedents of inter-firm networking among small manufacturing firms. We highlighted some of the past and current researches relating to inter-firm network-ties including these theories: resource based view, alliance capabilities, trust and inter-firm alliance. Thus, the objective of this paper is to review different explanations of the antecedents of inter-firm networks that affect the formation of alliance among small firms, and to integrate them into combined framework approach. Overall, resource needs, (such as resource capability, alliance capability) and trust (such as inter-firm trust, inter-personal trust) these factors emerge as central in the paper. To test the proposed research model, data were collected from a sample of 367 small and medium-sized manufacturing ventures. Our empirical findings demonstrated that resource capability (complementary resources) has no significant association with formation of inter-firm alliance while alliance capabilities and trust showed partially significant relations with the inter-firm alliance formation.